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Topic: Zoo Bees (Read 4117 times)

I've been pretty busy & its been extremely hot down here. Been also working on a new website which will be active soon. JPthebeeman.com. Anyway, been taking some video, mostly pictures. Just been too tuckered out and hardly any time to put videos together. I will have some coming once I get a little time.

Here's one I did on June 11, at our New Orleans Audubon zoo. Hope you enjoy it!

It was an extremely messy and difficult job that took forever. The lady who hired me told me the bee's favorite snow cone flavor was green. :-D The building is approximately ten years old. The bricks are solid St. Joe bricks that are apparently available in this area. I haven't been back over but I'm sure all repairs were made within a few days of the removal.

I met with two contractors about 6 weeks prior to doing this job. Actually, I looked at this job last year and the zoo people were not prepared for something of this undertaking at that time.

The two contractors that I met with do work for the zoo on a regular basis. They just happened to be bidding against each other. Both knew full well the scope of this job, so there were no hidden surprises when we opened the brick wall up. They were fully aware that many bricks would likely have to be replaced.

The main guy who assisted me (Andy) worked his butt off getting those bricks out. About every 14" there was a metal strap secured to the sheetrock wall, which had to be cut in order to remove those bricks clustered around the straps.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Psalm 19:9-10The fear of the Lord is clean,enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.More to be desired are they than gold, yea ,than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

My Dad used to book bands for Beaver Productions in the 1970's. Back then he used to book the concerts and even catered some of the events, preparing red beans and rice and Jambalya. We often had entire bands come by the house for seafood parties. One such band was the Meters. We even took Leo Nocentelli fishing once. http://www.nocentelli.com/html/index.html

BTW, there is another building on the premises with two hives. I will be meeting with the contractor to coordinate that job this Thursday. This guy I know who has a strong cajun accent will be helping out that day. I know him as the alligator man, you know him as Schawee! ;)

Use to go with the family to those river side concerts back in the day and remember those left hand cigarette smell in the air.

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Psalm 19:9-10The fear of the Lord is clean,enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.More to be desired are they than gold, yea ,than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Yep, that was one of the reasons my Mom wanted my Dad to get out of the music business. The wacky tobaccy was the least harmful stuff floating around back then but still nothing compared to what you have today.

Perhaps they're Irish bees? You need a shirt that reads, "Been there, destroyed that!" after this job. That had to be a lot of work. Hope they supplied you with an endless supply of sno-cones during the day.

JP, you say you knew last year that this would be a really big job...but how did you know the extent to which the bees had built comb?

At every single removal, I fear that the bees have built waaay more than I anticipated. Until I see that last comb, I dread that I'll have to tear down a brick wall or a chimney or take a roof off. I can't tell you how happy I am each time I realize I've reached the end of the comb just because that's the point when I know it's not as extensive as I imagine.

Liz, I knew we'd have to perform some exploratory surgery on this one but the zoo people, contractor and myself were all game. We began by looking over blueprints to get an idea of what the construction of that wall was like. The interior is a bit of a nightmare for inspection purposes as there is all kind of shelving, cabinetry and even an elevator on the other side of that wall! Sometimes you just need to dive in with the idea of worse case scenario which this one did not wind up being. Thank God!